Delving into Charlie Kelmeckis’s Psyche: A Psychological Analysis
Have you ever wondered if your very mind is betraying you, hiding vital information until it is almost too late? Unfortunately for Charlie Kelmeckis, this was the sad truth. Since the beginning of time, the mind has been an enigma, and many have tried to understand it. This has led to the development of many theories to answer the inquiry of what exactly it entails and its inner workings. The concept of psychoanalysis has been the subject of profound debate over the last several decades, and as a result, many subcategories have surfaced. The id, ego, and superego have been established to describe the divides in our minds and how they work together. As for the unconscious, it can repress memories and our deepest desires and their effects on us in our everyday lives. In Charlie’s case, The Perks of Being a Wallflower displays a clear image of id, ego, superego, and repression through his struggles, ultimately reaching a dangerous climax.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows the story of Charlie Kelmeckis in his very first year of high school as he deals with past traumas at the forefront of his mind and those repressed. The movie begins with Charlie writing a letter to an unknown friend, which becomes a common theme, marking the beginning of the fragmentation of his psyche. In one of Charlie’s classes, he meets a senior who introduces him to his step-sister, marking the blossoming friendship of Patrick, Sam, and Charlie. This sparks Charlie’s journey, where his psyche begins to unravel. However, he is introduced to environments that leave Charlie in a fragile mentality, resulting in blackouts. Eventually, when it is time for all of Charlie’s friends to leave for college, he reaches a critical point, spending time in a hospital where he confronts repressed memories. By the film’s end, Charlie is shown to have grown and learned a great deal from his experiences, good and bad, and imparted the well-renowned quote, “We are infinite.”
Psychoanalysis
Charlie’s struggles highlight fundamental psychoanalytical theories throughout The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Nick Crossley, the writer for Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory, emphasizes Freud’s belief that our minds contain “three interacting parts” that work together, labeled as the id, ego, and superego. The id is the part of us based on instincts, rebelling against social boundaries. Conversely, the superego is the exact opposite, which means it is “the internalization of social norms and demands.” Finally, there is the ego, the “referee” between the id and superego. As claimed by Mary Klage, author for Key Terms in Literary Theory, the id is also where the unconscious resides, invisible “to our conscious, rational mind,” controlling actions and thoughts unsolicited. In this place, repression occurs, which Edward Craighead, writer for Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science, claims is when the mind actively suppresses memories and the unconscious buries it underneath the conscious mind, where it struggles to “reenter awareness.” Finally, according to Jean Klotz, author of the Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis, desire is a “continuous force rather than an individual act or wishing or longing.” These critical concepts are seen as Charlie breaks the barrier between his conscious and unconscious mind.
Charlie’s Id
Throughout The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie has to balance his id and superego, which sparks the fracturing of his psyche and, in the end, the revealing of repressed memories. The id, specifically, has a hold on Charlie and his unconscious actions. The most prominent moments displaying the id at work relate to Charlie’s interactions with Patrick, who is a bit of a rebel, an outcast, the perfect id. This is seen almost right at the film’s beginning when we are introduced to Patrick, who ridicules the teacher in a shared class of his and Charlie’s. Nevertheless, he is not truly tied to Charlie’s id until a little later at a party. There, Patrick makes a very profound statement, declaring to Charlie, “You’re a wallflower.” This is viewed as Charlie’s id reaching out to him through his unconscious, or ego, firmly planting him in a mental place where he is outside of “societal norms,” which is what the id is constantly grappling to win over on the superego.
Another moment in this film when Charlie’s id seems to have a prominent influence on Charlie’s actions occurs while he and all of his friends play truth or dare. At this point, Charlie has begun dating Mary Elizabeth. Charlie is clearly no longer interested but unsure of how to end it. During this game, Patrick is again a driving force for Charlie’s id, his more instinctive actions. When it is Patrick’s turn, he chooses Charlie, asking him how his relationship is going, and Charlie admits, “I keep on fantasizing that one of us is dying of cancer so that I don’t have to break up with her.” This is quickly discarded as nothing more than a fantasy, and Charlie finally is asked “truth or dare?” A crucial moment afterward occurs that truly changes the trajectory of how Charlie’s mental state regresses. Patrick dares Charlie to kiss the “prettiest girl in the room,” but rather than kissing his girlfriend, he chooses Sam. This splinters Charlie’s relationship with his friends, leading him to spiral to a point where he almost does not return, as his id influence leads him to a much darker place where he feels exiled from the group.
Charlie’s Superego
Before reaching this critical point, Charlie still had moments when his superego was prominent in combating his more potent emotions. Much like how Patrick was a major instigator of the id in Charlie, Sam harmonizes with his superego. Earlier in the film, Charlie is bullied and pressured to do the homework of other classmates simply because, as Patrick claimed, of his “wallflower” status and intelligence. He is quick to let this slide on occasions exhibited in the film, portraying this toxic balance that his id had with his superego, likely as a response to past traumas that, although partially unknown, have tremendously affected his self-worth. Once Sam is introduced to Charlie, she begins to rework how he sees himself in a more self-respecting manner. The superego, specifically, according to Jacqueline Longe, editor for Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, “is a moral judgment about harming others,” by extension, this can be expanded to care of oneself. Charlie offers to assist Sam in studying for her SAT, which directly parallels to past moments with his classmates, yet in a healthy fashion, where he is not pressured by a warped sense of societal norms due to trauma affecting his superego’s outlook.
Similarly, Sam spends some time with Charlie, where she expresses her desire “that the first person that kisses [him] loves [him],” after she admits that this was taken from her terribly and wishes for Charlie’s story to be different, both unknowing of his past. This is a very profound moment for Charlie as he begins to grasp what a relationship with consent looks like, that through his later actions clearly leave a lasting effect on him and how his superego will balance out his more unaccountable mindset.
Charlie’s Ego
All of these moments previously specified between Charlie’s id and superego are stepping stones for his repressed memories to become apparent. Although there are a few defining moments where the fracturing is noticeable, focusing more on his ego. For one, Charlie witnesses a personal moment between his older sister and her boyfriend, Pony-tail Derek, which escalates to violence, clearly leaving Charlie at a loss on how to respond. He is seen to be anxious and confused about the proper action he should take, especially as his sister, Candice, asks him to remain quiet on the matter as she can “handle it.” This interaction brings up another instance where we are introduced to more of Aunt Helen’s backstory and how she had a boyfriend who was abusive, causing her to further a specific persona that sidetracks one from the concerning aspects she displays. This moment is key for Charlie to begin to break down the barriers his unconscious has been tirelessly working to maintain. Countering this, Charlie’s ego seems to be working to find the correct and socially acceptable route to take on this issue, especially when recollecting how it affected his Aunt.
Charlie’s Repression
Looking back after the truth-or-dare incident, however, Charlie jumps into a fight between Patrick and some other seniors, yet he cannot remember anything of the event afterward, his unconscious working overtime to combat memories coming to the forefront. However, things do not come to a head until the end when all of Charlie’s friends are leaving for college, and he closes that metaphorical door to this time in his life.
As he walks home from seeing Patrick and Sam off, Charlie is very obviously dealing with severe mental distress, alluding to the fact that whatever memories were being repressed are no longer contained. Arthur S. Reber, author for The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, asserts that memories are typically repressed due to the ego believing that they will cause anxiety or guilt, so to avoid this, they are entirely removed from the conscious mind. Both of these feelings are distinctly evident, and Charlie rapidly declines to the point wthat he is mumbling “It’s all my fault” repeatedly and going as far as attempting serious self-harm if not for a call to his sister. Throughout this complex and disconcerting moment for Charlie, he experiences a scattering of flashbacks, from recent memories like Candice and Pony-Tail Derek, Charlie getting in the fight, and Charlie’s repressed memories with his Aunt Helen. The use of the more present moments truly highlights how crucial they each were to this final tipping point Charlie experienced at the end of the film as he begins to put together the previously missing pieces.
Additionally, during these flashbacks, a vital statement is quite quickly recollected by Charlie: Aunt Helen informing him, “It’ll be our little secret, okay?” Charlie alarmingly repeats this back at the very end of this scene, where he calls his sister, saying that he believes it was his fault that his Aunt Helen died and that maybe he wanted her to as well. This scene displays Charlie’s mindset at this critical time, as he is struggling to recollect his previous view of his Aunt being such a wonderful person who would always understand him, to now, with these memories, a totally different person who caused him long-lasting harm. Although Charlie does acknowledge the abuse his Aunt Helen put him through, he is not able to fully accept it until much later, during his time in a mental hospital over the summer, as he begins to grasp what these repressed memories entailed.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower delves into the psychological fortitude that is our minds and just how dynamically diverse they can be. In Charlie Kelmeckis’ case, he had an especially difficult time; his crumbling psyche could only bear so much before his ego could no longer repress the memories that kept the last thread intact. When it came time for him to confront these memories, it was a long journey, yet by the end of the film, he was able to impart irreplaceable knowledge. In the final moments with Sam and Patrick, Sam reflects on how there is a whole new world out there to be whoever you wish, and for Charlie, this was his deepest desire, to find a way past his darker moments, to see the light and beauty in life again. Ultimately, this is something that everyone strives to experience no matter the point in their lives, to see its good and bad parts, no matter how dark or impossible it may seem. And as Charlie rides off, the film closes, leaving the compelling lesson that we can write our own story and that “we are infinite.”
Additional Sources Used in the Article
Craighead, W. Edward, and Charles B. Nemeroff. “Repression.” The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. 2004. Found on Credo Reference.
Nick Crossley. “Id, Ego and Superego.” Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory. 2005. Found on Credo Reference.
Jean Pierre Klotz. “DESIRE.” The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis. 2006. Found on Credo Reference.
Jacqueline L. Longe. “Superego.” Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. 2016. Found on Credo Reference.
Arthur S. Reber. et al. “Repression.” The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology. 2009. Found on Credo Reference.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky, Stephen, Summit Entertainment, 2012.
Mary Klage. “Unconscious.” Key Terms in Literary Theory. 2012. Found on Credo Reference.
